The US Department of Commerce stopped charging countervailing duties on Canadian supercalendered paper, which had been in force since August 2015. Duties imposed on paper importers will be refunded with accumulated interest.
US Department of Commerce (DOC) issued the order on 5 July after Verso Paper as the sole remaining major US SC paper producer and petitioner wrote to DOC that it had no further interest in continuing the order. US DOC then conducted a Changed Circumstances Review of the duties before formally revoking it.
The background to the stop order is an agreement between Verso Paper and Canadian manufacturers Port Hawkesbury Paper and Irving Paper in March, that if countervailing duties were stopped then the Canadian companies would pay a part of the refunded duties to Verso Paper subject to a maximum of $42m.
Canadian paper producer Resolute Forest Products stated that it had paid a total of roughly $60m in countervailing duties until June this year. Resolute Forest Products, Port Hawkesbury Paper and Irving Paper were the companies who were last affected by the duties on SC paper. Catalyst Paper was exempted from the duties as early as in 2016 as the DOC determined that the company received no significant subsidies.
